State Chateau Kunstat

Written by Nikola Vlckova

Category: Castle

Kunstat chateau

Kunstat chateau

The Kunstat Chateau was founded by Kuna from Kunstat. He was a part of the Moravian manorial genus. The first written mention of Kunstat Chateau is from 1279. Men from Kunstat were its owners until 1521. From the first half of the 14th century until the 16th century they were rearranging and expanding the chateau. The reconstruction of a medieval castle into a renaissance chateau started in the ’30s of the 16th century when the chateau was bought by Jan Cernicky from Kacov. The reconstruction was finished in the ’50s of the 16th century by his sons – Arnost and Vilem.

The Kunstat Chateau was bought by counts of Lamberg in 1678. In the same year, Kaspar Friedrich (the count of Lamberg) began to rebuild the chateau to a representative family residence. Between the 18th and 19th centuries was the chateau reconstructed by lords of Honrichs from Wolfswarffen into classicism style. The lords of the Honrichs family were owners between 1783 – 1901.

Another reconstruction was in the second half of the 19th century. In the middle of the garden was built a pool with the central figure of a nymph.

The last owners of Kunstat Chateau were a genus of imperial counts Coudenhove-Honrichs between 1901 – 1945. In 1948 Kunstat Chateau was nationalized and it served as a collection facility of the Nation Cultural Commission, depository of the Moravian Provincial Archive in Brno, mobilization warehouse of the Ministry of the Interior.

On the 1st of January 2005 National Monuments Institute, a territorial professional workplace in Brno took over the administration of the chateau and immediately started to work on things. They wanted the chateau to be at least partly opened to the public as soon as possible. Thanks to some extraordinary subsidies have begun investment construction projects, priority restoration of the truss and roof cladding replacement, and static securing of the object. Chateau interiors are gaining their original form, which represents the living culture of the last aristocrat owners.

On the 1st of June 2005, Kunstate State Chateau was ceremoniously opened to the public. The Kunstat Chateau complex is a national cultural monument since 2002.

The Kunstat Chateau is located in the South-Moravian region nearby Kunstat town.

For more information about the South Bohemian region, from which this chateau comes, click here and here.